Angels’ best efforts are doomed in Opening Day loss to Seattle Mariners

Seattle Mariners' Robinson Cano smiles after scoring on a three run home run by teammate Justin Smoak (not pictured) in the ninth inning of a Major League baseball game against the Los Angeles Angels on Opening Night at Angel Stadium of Anaheim in Anaheim, Calif., on Monday, March 31, 2014.
(Keith Birmingham Pasadena Star-News)

About the only good omen for the Angels was a two-run home run in the first inning by Mike Trout, and even that went to waste.

The Seattle Mariners came back from a two-run deficit to win 10-3 before an announced sellout crowd of 44,152 at Angel Stadium. The final nail in the coffin was a six-run ninth inning that Weaver couldn’t stand to watch. Literally.

“I went in the bathroom and I threw up, actually,” Weaver said.

Hours before the first game of the season, Angels manager Mike Scioscia talked about “getting off on the right foot” after slow starts doomed their 2012 and 2013 seasons.

Afterward, Scioscia said “it’s only one game.”

“Mike (Trout) got us off on the right foot,” Scioscia said. “We had opportunities and Felix (Hernandez) kept making pitches to get out of trouble. So I felt we had a good approach against him. As the game went on he really found his stuff. We got his pitch count up and were able to get him out after six.

“We had lead, we just couldn’t hold it.”

Sound familiar?

For all the changes the Angels made to their bullpen over the winter, it could not protect the 3-3 tie when Weaver (0-1) left the game.

The first pitcher out of the bullpen was Fernando Salas. Making his first appearance as an Angel, the right-hander allowed a double to Abraham Almonte, scoring Mike Zunino with the go-ahead run.

Hernandez (1-0) didn’t lose the game but he did lose a modest Opening Day streak of 11 2/3 scoreless innings. The right-hander allowed four hits and three runs — two earned — in six innings. He walked one batter and struck out 11 before being replaced by Yoervis Medina in the seventh inning.

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In the ninth inning, veteran reliever Kevin Jepsen was greeted rudely in his 2014 debut.

After consecutive strikeouts, Seattle’s Brad Miller barely beat out an infield single. Seven more batters came to the plate before the inning ended. Six scored and five of the runs were charged to Jepsen, who didn’t record another out. The big blow was a monster three-run home run by Justin Smoak into the right-field tunnel.

Nick Maronde put out the fire by striking out Zunino — the first batter of the inning — but not before allowing a bases-clearing triple by Dustin Ackley. That gave the Mariners a 10-3 lead.

“We left too many balls over the middle of the plate,” Angels catcher Chris Iannetta said. “That ball to Smoak, we were trying to make a pitch in. We leave it out over the middle of the plate up. You don’t want to do that to a guy like that, a fastball hitter.

“We just didn’t make pitches and that was the difference,” Iannetta continued. “It’s going to come down to pitching and defense this year. We’re going to hit. We’ve got a good offensive lineup top to bottom.”

Kole Calhoun singled in the first inning, the Angels’ first hit in their first at-bat of the season. Trout, who signed a six-year, $144.5 million contract extension Saturday, followed with a no-doubt home run to left field to provide 2-0 lead.

Trout entered the game with an otherworldly 1.100 on base-plus-slugging percentage against Hernandez. The two-time MVP runner-up was serenaded with chants of “M-V-P” as he walked to the plate. As he circled the bases and jogged back to the dugout, the individual cheers were unintelligible.

The momentum didn’t last.

Albert Pujols’ RBI double in the third inning gave the Angels a 3-1 lead. Weaver couldn’t quite hold it.

The right-hander allowed just five hits and two runs over the game’s first six innings. In the seventh, the Mariners chased Weaver and took their first lead of the game.

Trailing 3-2, Seattle got a one-out single from Dustin Ackley, followed by an RBI triple by Mike Zunino that caromed off the fence and past left fielder Josh Hamilton. Ackley came home with the game-tying run.

That was the last of Weaver’s 95 pitches. His final line: 6 1/3 innings pitched, six hits, four runs — three earned — three walks and six strikeouts.

“I felt like I threw well,” he said. “The only inning I’m upset about is the sixth with a couple walks there. … A couple balls came out flat. Other than that I felt like I was in control until a couple slip-ups late.”

The Angels can only hope the final outcome isn’t a sign that little has changed since last September — or a sign of things to come.

“This game could be the difference in the season,” Weaver said. “You never know. Every game’s important.”